


XX. judge, jury, and executioner

by precognition



Category: One Piece
Genre: Canon Compliant, Gen, Introspection, Non-Graphic Violence, Sabo-centric (One Piece), The Revolutionary Army (One Piece), wheee i think that's all?
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-02-09
Updated: 2021-02-09
Packaged: 2021-03-15 01:34:42
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,327
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29305818
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/precognition/pseuds/precognition
Summary: Major Arcana (XX): Judgementrebirth, inner calling, absolution
Relationships: Koala & Sabo (One Piece)
Comments: 11
Kudos: 16





	XX. judge, jury, and executioner

**Author's Note:**

> sabo introspection bc i feel like his relationship to the WG and the complexities of his personality are not examined enough in either canon or fanon. there's a lot of talk of killing but nothing graphic.

Sabo is ten when he wakes up to a gaping hole in his memories and the sight gone from his left eye. The fresh pink skin under his bandages crawls with a feeling of wrongness, a hunger he has yet to understand. He understands, then, that something has been stolen from him that will never be returned. When Dragon explains the situation further, he understands that there will never be justice for him either. He looks at the man’s dark eyes, and sees a burning coal flare up in their depths. His burns itch in return, and Sabo becomes a Revolutionary.

* * *

He is thirteen when he begins his training under Dragon. The Army is no stranger to traumatized children, and Sabo is content to allow himself to be molded into a weapon. He is no passive observer, and he knows he could stop his training at any time, but he refuses to be weak again. The space where his memories should be pulses with a frozen emptiness that pushes him forwards, and he can hear each strike of his pipe clang through it like a cliffside echo. He hits harder, and dodges faster, and through it all runs the cold knowledge that none of it will bring back what he has lost. He pushes it away, and his next attack is hard enough to shatter bone.

He meets Koala not long after, and when their fingers brush as he offers her an apple, he feels electricity judder up his spine. They lock eyes, and he sees the emptiness in hers behind the smile she always wears. He flips a crate over for her, and they spend the afternoon hiding in the storeroom as Kuma searches for them outside. She explains her smile and shows him the tattoo on her back, and he tells her about the emptiness in the back of his head, and doesn’t flinch when she runs her hand over his scars. He watches the way she secures her smile back in place when the door to the storeroom finally bursts open, and files it away in the back of his head.

* * *

He is fifteen when something snaps in him for the first time. Koala is the one who finds him, kneeling on the floor by his bed and sobbing. She doesn’t offer him kindnesses, or ask what’s wrong, just sits by him and holds the hand that isn’t covered with burn scars until he stops shaking, and then forces him into bed, assuring him that they’ll talk tomorrow. He can’t help but feel that it’s a threat. She doesn’t arrive empty-handed the next day, instead handing him a journal and a pair of gloves. He has too much pride to ask what they’re for and she knows it, so she explains. A journal to keep track of things he doesn’t want to forget, and gloves to hide the scars he does. Their first official mission is in a week, she says, and they can’t afford any weaknesses. When Sabo emerges from his room the next day, he has a bright smile on his face, and happily jokes with the soldiers he passes in the hall. There’s a spark of approval in Koala’s glance.

Sabo doesn’t remember his first kill. It was sometime during that first mission, he knows, but he can’t place a time. He remembers standing back to back with Koala in the middle of the warehouse that served as a center of operations for the slave catchers they were tasked with taking down. He remembers the shock of her Fishman Karate behind him, and the smooth chill of Armament Haki coating his hands. He knows he killed then - remembers tasting the bitter stench of death in the air, and getting an earful about the blood on his new gloves from Koala later, but he can’t remember a single face. Justice, he writes in his new journal later, is blind.

* * *

Sabo is friendly, most of the new recruits agree. He is never spotted on base without a cheery smile on his face, and he happily makes small talk with almost anyone he passes by. His banter with his partner can sound meanspirited, but the way they press their sides together even as she goes on another rant about his impulsive nature is anything but. There isn’t much dissent about this until the meeting with a leader of a rebel faction in the West Blue. A few lower-ranking members of the Army are there to witness it, and it’s not long before word spreads, about the way Sabo kept the same cheery smile he always has when greeting people, even as he rejected every suggestion the man came up with. The way he kept the same light tone as during mealtime conversation, even as the pleasantries turned into thinly veiled threats. The witnesses whisper about how he didn’t even seem to blink as he crushed the man’s hand for making a move towards Koala, and how he pulled the same pout when she scolded him, even as the rebel leader screamed. If Sabo notices the way half the base is more wary of him after that, he doesn’t seem concerned.

Sabo grows to enjoy infiltration missions. He wields his words and disarming grins with as much finesse as he does his pipe, and Koala likes to joke that he could talk his way out of Impel Down if he needed to. He always gives the same self-effacing shrug when she does. He knows the other soldiers have nightmares about the men they’ve killed, but he keeps the memories of his like mementos. He lets them fill the emptiness in his recollection, reclaiming what was stolen from him one death at a time. On his worst nights, when he can’t get his hand to stop shaking, and Koala has to come and hold him until he calms down, they’re something of a comfort. He will make sure the Celestial Dragons never steal from anyone else again.

* * *

Sabo is 20 years old and is about to be promoted to Chief of Staff. It’s supposed to be a secret, but Sabo has never been a fan of those, and it’s not as though Dragon could hide anything from Koala anyway. Iva asked a few days ago if he knew, in xir unsubtle way, but Sabo just batted his eyelashes and waited for Koala to distract xem with a question about code analysis that she already knew the answer to so he could slip away. The promotion isn’t particularly relevant, it’s not as though he has much competition for the position, but he does wonder, as he walks alone into the Marine base, who they would pick to replace him if he died here. As he snaps another man’s neck, he concludes that it would probably be Koala. She’s never been one to take command, much preferring to remain in a support role, but she’s the closest to him that they have. The Marines are screaming now, as he idly dodges bullets on the way to the central courtyard. It’s always important to attack where the foundation is weakest, he knows. He shatters the courtyard around him, and as he walks out of the base unscathed, he catches sight of a torn and bloodied coat, caught on one spiked railing. He can’t help but laugh a little. Justice indeed.

* * *

At age 22, Sabo is no stranger to blood. The Vice Admiral facing him is no match for his Haki, and he means every word when he threatens to crush the man’s skull. He has done it before, and will do it again. The Celestial Dragons and their pet Marines have already taken everything from him - his memories, his brother, a life that might have been. He will not let them touch anything or anyone dear to him again, and as he shatters the bone-white mask in one hand, the only word that comes to his mind is “Judgement”.

**Author's Note:**

> hope you enjoyed leave a comment if you liked or if you didn't maybe we can kiss


End file.
